The jury at the inquest of a 14-year-old girl who was struck by a car in Limerick city three years ago, has returned a verdict of accidental death.
Limerick Coroner’s Court heard that Savannah Calvert from Garryowen died of a head injury as a result of the collision on 16 August 2023.
Her family said nothing would ever take away the pain of losing her.
The two-day hearing took place amidst tight security at the courthouse in Kilmallock.
A decision made at a pre-inquest hearing a week earlier requiring the driver of the car that struck the teenager to give evidence in court was reconsidered by Coroner John McNamara, who granted a Garda request for the witness to testify via video-link from an undisclosed location.
Barrister Antoinette Simon BL, representing the Calvert family, had argued that Stephen Bourke should be present in the courtroom to give his evidence.
When Mr Bourke appeared on screen in court, he acknowledged that he was an unaccompanied learner driver with “three or four months” driving experience at the time.
He told the coroner’s court that he was driving a red Kia Ceed into the city to get a pizza at around 11.30pm.
Mr Bourke, who was 21 at the time, said he was driving behind a Volkswagen Passat which braked at Bank Place when two young people ran out onto the road.
He said he applied the brakes, and then moved off when the Volkswagen Passat also drove off, because he thought the teenagers had crossed the road.
He told the inquest that there was not any way for him to avoid hitting the girl with his car. “It seemed she had made a decision to run back,” he said.
The depositions of three young people, who were with Savannah on the night of the collision, were read to the coroner’s court.
One teenager said he had run across the road at Bank Place and Savannah had run after him.
The others described how the 14-year-old followed her friend across the road and when they shouted “car”, she stopped in the middle of the road and tried to turn back but was struck by the vehicle.
The children described hearing the bang when she was hit by the car and then seeing her lying on the ground.
The coroner’s court heard that the interviews with the children were taken by specially trained gardaí.
The inquest was told that gardaí were alerted to a road traffic collision involving a pedestrian at around 11.30pm and the first gardaí at the scene administered CPR on Savannah until an ambulance arrived.
Mr Bourke identified himself to gardaí as the driver of the car that struck the girl, the court was told.
He underwent drug and alcohol testing at the scene, and neither was detected in his system.
The inquest heard that he provided his provisional driver licence to gardaí and was subsequently issued with fixed charge penalty notices for driving unaccompanied and driving without L plates which he paid.
The inquest also heard in garda evidence that Mr Bourke was very worried and concerned for the girl and asked gardaí at the scene if they had any updates on her condition.
The coroner’s court heard from Dr Anthony O’Connell, an emergency physician at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), who said Savannah arrived by ambulance to the emergency department ten minutes after midnight.
He told the inquest that her head injuries were extensive and catastrophic, and they could not be treated by surgery.
She died a few hours later.
A memorial for Savannah Calvert at Bank Place in Limerick
Pathologist Marcell Szasz told the inquest that the cause of death was “a head injury consistent with this accident”.
Evidence was also given by Garda Mike Reddy, a PSV Inspector with over 30 years’ experience, who examined the red Kia Ceed involved in the collision.
Garda Reddy said there was a dent on the A pillar, the front vertical support of the car’s windscreen, which he described as “very strong and unforgiving to contact even at low speeds”.
He said there was damage to the windscreen, and the wing mirror on the driver’s side had been displaced.
Garda Reddy said there was no evidence of any faults with the vehicle that could have caused the collision.
A garda forensic collision investigator, Sgt Kevin Bourke, told the court that he conducted a technical examination of the road which had a speed limit of 50 km/h at the time of the accident.
He said there was no evidence that the Kia Ceed swerved, and there were no skid marks on the road.
Sgt Bourke said the damage to the driver-side of the vehicle suggested a “glancing collision” with the pedestrian, and that Ms Calvert was particularly unfortunate to hit her head on the A pillar of the car.
James O’Brien, a forensic investigator, was tasked by the Office of the Coroner to conduct an independent investigation of the collision.
Mr O’Brien said it was his assessment that the speed the car being driven by Mr Bourke was between 27km/h and 33 km/h.
Inspector Gearoid Thompson told the inquest that a file is sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after every road traffic collision, and the DPP directed no prosecution of the driver in this case.
After a short deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death. The foreman of the jury sympathised with the family on the tragic circumstances in which Savannah had lost her young life.
The Calvert family thanked the jury for the difficult role they had to perform during the hearing.
Diane Calvert described her sister as a brilliant girl, who loved soccer, boxing and being around her brothers and sisters.
“She loved her nieces and nephews. She loved her friends. She was just the happiest little girl ever,” she said.
“Never a bad word would come out of Savannah’s mouth, she was just so cheerful, and so beautiful and she’s a big loss to all of us.”